1. Field of the Invention:
This invention relates to an electric guitar provided with a tremolo unit, and particularly to an improvement in the string fixing devices, respectively, mounted on the head of the guitar and assembled with the tremolo unit.
2. Prior Art:
When the arm or neck of a conventional electric guitar provided with a tremolo unit is slightly bent to actuate the tremolo unit, each string is temporarily loosened and vibrated under the action of oscillatory rocking movement of the tremolo unit to generate a tremolo sound. During this tremolo playing operation, each string slides on a nut mounted on the head of the guitar and also on a corresponding bridge assembled with the tremolo unit so that the tension developed in the string is changed. Particularly, the tension between the nut and the peg is decreased and the tension between the bridge and the string fixing means is also decreased, resulting in dislocation of the string. The once dislocated string is not restored precisely to the original tuned position even when the arm of the guitar is freed from the bending force to be in the original straight condition, leading to aberration in tuning of the string.
In order to prevent the tension developed in each string, particularly at the portion extending from the peg to the nut and at the portion extending from the bridge to the string fixing means, from being decreased, a proposal has been made to mount a string fixing device 1 shown in FIG. 8 on one end of the neck of the guitar and to assemble another string fixing device 6 shown in FIG. 9 with the tremolo unit.
The prior art string fixing device 1 shown in FIG. 8 is mounted on one end of the neck of the electric guitar in lieu of the conventional nut for carrying the strings. However, the string fixing device 1 has a base 2 which is thicker than the thickness or height of the conventional nut. Thus, the end of the neck 4 of the guitar must be partially cut away to accommodate the string fixing device 1, which weakens the boundary portion between the neck 4 and the head 13. Another disadvantage of this prior art construction resides in that a separate string holder member 5 must be mounted on the end of the head 13 adjacent to the string fixing device 1 for guiding the string 3 to the peg mounted at the distal end of the head 13. In addition to a complicated operation required for assembling the string fixing device 1 and the separate string holder member 5, a cumbersome operation is required to pass each string through the string fixing device 1 and the string holder member 5. Furthermore, since the known string fixing device 1 is made of a metal, the timbre of the sound generated from the guitar is changed to an unpleasant metallic sound.
The prior art string fixing device 6 shown in FIG. 9 is assembled with a tremolo unit 7. As shown, an eyelet or ring at one end of a commercially available string 3 is cut off, and the end bared of eyelet is pressed on the back of a bridge 9 by means of a fixing screw 8. When a composite string composed of a core string and a covering coil string is used and the eyelet at one end of the composite string is cut off to be fitted by the string fixing device 6, the covering coil string tends to get loose. A more serious disadvantage of the prior art device 6 is that the string is fixed on the back side of the bridge 9 with no play. As a result, the string 3 is repeatedly bent at a certain point on the bridge 9, resulting in breakdown of the string 3 at the point occurred too quickly.